The Secret Chief: Conversations with a Pioneer of the Underground Psychedelic Therapy Movement

Myron J. Stolaroff

PROLOGUE by Stanislav Grof, M.D.
This excerpt from The Secret Chief appears in The Psychedelic Library by permission of the publisher.

After the publication of the first clinical paper on LSD by Walter A.
Stoll in 1947, Albert Hofmann's serendipitous discovery of the
psychedelic effects of LSD became practically an overnight sensation
in the world of science. Never before had a single substance held so
much promise in such a wide variety of fields of interest.
For neuropharmacologists and neurophysiologists, the discovery of
LSD meant the beginning of a golden era of research that could solve
many puzzles concerning the intricate biochemical interactions
underlying the functioning of the brain.
Experimental psychiatrists saw this substance as a unique means for
creating a laboratory model for naturally occurring psychoses,
particularly schizophrenia. They hoped that it could provide
unparalleled insights into the nature of these mysterious disorders
and open new avenues for their treatment.
LSD was also highly recommended as a unique teaching device that
would make it possible for clinical psychiatrists and psychologists to
spend a few hours in the world of their patients and as a result of it
to understand them better, be able to communicate with them more
effectively, and improve their ability to help them.
Early experiments with LSD revealed its unique potential as a
powerful tool offering the possibility of deepening and accelerating
the psychotherapeutic process, as well as extending the range of
applicability of psychotherapy to categories of patients that
previously had been difficult to reach such as alcoholics, narcotic
drug addicts, and criminal recidivists.
Particularly valuable and promising were the early efforts to use LSD
psychotherapy with terminal cancer patients. These studies showed
that LSD was able to relieve severe pain, often even in those patients
who had not responded to medication with narcotics. In a large
percentage of these patients, it was also possible to alleviate or even
eliminate the fear of death, increase the quality of their lives during
the remaining days, and positively transform the experience of
dying.
For the historians and critics of art, the LSD experiments provided
extraordinary new insights into the psychology and psychopathology
of art, particularly various modern movements as well as paintings
and sculptures of native cultures.
The spiritual experiences frequently observed in LSD sessions
offered a radically new understanding of a wide variety of
phenomena from the world of religion, including shamanism, the
rites of passage, the ancient mysteries of death and rebirth, the
Eastern spiritual philosophies, and the mystical traditions of the
world.
LSD research seemed to be well on its way to fulfilling all the above
promises and expectations when it was suddenly interrupted by
unsupervised mass experimentation of the young generation and the
ensuing repressive measures of a legal, administrative, and political
nature.
However, the problems associated with this development, blown out
of proportion by sensation-hunting journalists, were not the only
reason why LSD and other psychedelics were rejected by the Euro-
American culture. An important contributing factor was also the
attitude of technologized societies toward non-ordinary states of
consciousness.
All ancient and pre-industrial societies held these states in high
esteem and they devoted much time and energy trying to develop
safe and effective ways of inducing them. Members of these social
groups had the opportunity to repeatedly experience non-ordinary
states in a variety of sacred and secular contexts.
Because of their capacity to provide experiential access to the
numinous dimensions of existence and to the world of archetypal
realms and beings, non-ordinary states represented the main vehicle
of the ritual and spiritual life of the pre-industrial era. They also
played an essential role in the diagnosing and healing of various
disorders and were used for cultivation of intuition and extrasensory
perception.
By comparison, the industrial civilization has pathologized non-
ordinary states, developed effective means of suppressing them
when they occur spontaneously, and has rejected or even outlawed
the contexts and tools that can facilitate them. Because of the
resulting naivete and ignorance concerning non-ordinary states,
Western culture was unprepared to accept and incorporate the
extraordinary mind-altering properties and power of psychedelics.
The sudden invasion of the Dionysian elements from the depths of
the unconscious and the heights of the superconscious was too
threatening for the Puritanical values of our society. In addition, the
irrational and transrational nature of psychedelic experiences
seriously challenged the very foundations of the world-view of
Western materialistic science. The existence and nature of these
experiences could not be explained in the context of the mainstream
theories and seriously undermined the metaphysical assumptions on
which Western culture is built.
For most psychiatrists and psychologists, psychotherapy meant
disciplined discussions or free-associating on the couch. The intense
emotions and dramatic physical manifestations in psychedelic
sessions appeared to them to be too close to what they were used to
considering to be psychopathology. It was hard for them to imagine
that such states could be healing and transformative and they did
not trust the reports about the extraordinary power of psychedelic
psychotherapy.
In addition, many of the phenomena occurring in psychedelic
sessions could not be understood within the context of theories
dominating academic thinking. The possibilities of reliving birth or
episodes from embryonal life, obtaining accurate information from the
collective unconscious, experiencing
archetypal realities and karmic memories, or perceiving remote
events in out-of-body states, were simply too fantastic to be
believable for an average professional.
Yet those of us who had the chance to work with psychedelics and
were willing to radically change our theoretical understanding of the
psyche and practical strategy of therapy were able to see and
appreciate the enormous potential of
psychedelics, both as therapeutic tools and as substances of
extraordinary heuristic value.
In one of my early books, I suggested that the potential significance
of LSD and other psychedelics for psychiatry and psychology was
comparable to the value the microscope has for biology and medicine
or the telescope has for astronomy. My later experience with
psychedelics only confirmed this initial impression. These substances
function as unspecific amplifiers that increase the energetic niveau in
the psyche and make the deep unconscious dynamics available for
conscious processing.
This unique property of psychedelics makes it possible to study
psychological undercurrents that govern our experiences and
behaviors to a depth that cannot be matched by any other methods
and tools available in modern mainstream science. In addition,
psychedelics offer unique opportunities for healing of emotional and
psychosomatic disorders, for positive personality transformation, and
consciousness evolution.
Naturally, tools of this power carry with them greater potential risks
than more conservative and far less effective tools currently
accepted and used by mainstream psychiatry, such as verbal
psychotherapy or tranquilizing medication. However, past research
has shown that these risks can be minimized through
responsible use and careful control of the set and setting.
The legal and administrative sanctions against psychedelics did not
deter lay experimentation, but they did terminate all legitimate
scientific research of these substances. For those of us who had the
privilege to explore the extraordinary potential of psychedelics, this
was a tragic loss for psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy.
These unfortunate developments wasted what was probably the
single most important opportunity in the history of these disciplines.
Had it been possible to avoid the unnecessary mass hysteria and
continue responsible research of psychedelics, they could have
become a tool that would make it possible to
radically revise the theory and practice of psychiatry. This research
would have brought a new understanding of the psyche and of
consciousness that could become an integral part of a comprehensive
new scientific paradigm of the twenty-first century.
Most of the LSD researchers grudgingly accepted the legal and
political sanctions against psychedelics and reluctantly returned to
mainstream therapeutic practices. A few attempted to develop non-
drug methods for inducing non-ordinary states of
consciousness with the experiential spectrum and healing potential
comparable to psychedelics. And then there were those who, like
Jacob, the "Secret Chief," refused to accept legal sanctions that they
considered irrational, unjustified, or even unconstitutional.
These researchers saw the extraordinary benefits that LSD therapy
offered to their clients and decided not to sacrifice the well-being of
these people to scientifically unsubstantiated legislation. In addition
to the therapeutic value of psychedelics, they were also aware of the
entheogenic potential of these
substances—their capacity to induce profound spiritual experiences.
For this reason, they understood their work with LSD to be not only
therapeutic practice, but also religious activity in the best sense of
the word. From this perspective, the legal sanctions against
psychedelics appeared to be not only unfounded and misguided, but
also represented a serious infringement of religious freedom.
Jacob painfully weighed the pros and cons and made the decision to
challenge the law, continue his work with psychedelics, and assume
personal responsibility for his activity. He has already passed the
judgment of his "family," the friends and
clients whose lives he has profoundly changed. They remember him
with great love and gratitude. It remains to be seen how he will be
judged by history. It is certainly wise to obey the laws if our primary
concern is personal safety and comfort.
However, it often happens
that in retrospect, history places higher value on those individuals
who violated questionable laws of their time because of foresight and
high moral principles than those who had issued them for wrong
reasons.

Stanislav Grof, M.D.
Mill Valley, California

The Secret Chief is published by MAPSThe Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studiesand may be ordered from the MAPS website